BackgroundA no-frills power trio from the southern state of Georgia. Don't expect any Allman Brothers tribute here folks, or even southern fried boogie a la Molly Hatchet or The Outlaws. Unfortunately being a power trio means you can't get away from the fact that there are less instruments to go around, hence a traditional power-trio sound has that underdone quality about it. However, talk to bands like Triumph, Rush, or even Frank Marino And Mahogany Rush in their heyday, and the word 'underdone' doesn't even feature in their vocabulary. Now, don't suggest for a minute that I'm trying to compare Fortnox to any of those guys, but the mere fact that musically and instrumentally, Fortnox had all the necessary qualities. Somebody else obviously thought so too, he must have been the A&R guy at Epic. For comparisons sake, the best bet is a smoother version of The Rods (circa 1981/82) combined with the early rampant style of Helix. That's admirable, considering The Rods early days were definitely their best and Helix's best stuff was earlier on in their career too. Production comes courtesy of Chris Tsangarides, who had also worked on the Tygers Of Pan Tang album 'The Cage' the same year.

The SongsFortnox commence with 'On The Prowl', a bright and breezy eighties anthem. 'Storm Inside My Head' is excellent hard driving rock with an insistent stomping beat. Fowler's guitar chugs away on the memorable 'Running From Yourself'. This is followed by the pairing 'The Beast In Me' and 'Rock And Roll City', definitely a by-product of the eighties, and probably condemned to this decade by the sounds of things. Elsewhere, 'Don't Scratch The Surface' sees the brief introduction of keyboards, while 'Hyperock' attempts to accelerate to warp speed, and is perhaps the heaviest track on the platter - reminding me of gonzoid heroes The Godz.

In SummaryOverall there's some reasonable stuff on here, but take into account that it does come from 1982. It was another album in the one-off stakes, as were so many of the Epic releases from that era. Obviously the general buying public were not in sync with the objectives of the marketing people at the label. The guys then went on to form the band Bombay, but just as they were on the verge of doing something useful, the rug was pulled from beneath their feet. As an aside, while doing some Internet reseach on Fortnox, I picked up on the fact that guitarist Rick Fowler suffers from a disorder called Tourette Syndrome. The track on this album 'The Beast In Me' is quite prophetic then? Since this review was written, Rick Fowler did contact us, and we even undertook an interview. Cheers Rick!

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